Alex Smith rebuts pal’s Twitter gibe

Two days after left tackle Joe Staley alleged that his buddy Alex Smith was looking up himself trending on Twitter in the afterglow of his performance Monday night, the 49ers‘ quarterback laughingly provided his version of events Thursday.

The social-networking saga began Tuesday when Staley expressed surprise that Smith, his neighbor on team flights, was eagerly reading the endless Twitter love he was receiving after he completed 18 of 19 passes and tossed three touchdown passes in a prime-time win over Arizona.

Smith doesn’t have a Twitter account, but Staley said his good friend just couldn’t resist the pull of all that praise.

“I did check him out. On the flight, he was checking out Twitter because he was trending, I guess, which was a big deal,” Staley said. “Which is very out of character for him because he’s never done that. I think he was feeling pretty good about himself or something.”

Smith laughed when asked about Staley’s allegation. He explained his blindside protector isn’t always looking out for him.

“I have no Twitter, so I have no idea how to do that,” Smith said. “So, yeah, we’re getting on the plane, and a lady is kind of joking with me, ‘Hey, you’re trending on Twitter.’ I sit next to Joe on the plane, so Joe was on his Twitter account and said, ‘Hey, you really are trending,’ and he shows it to me.

“So I clicked on it, and I’m scrolling through some of these comments on Joe’s phone and somehow he turns that into me looking up myself on Twitter. No, I don’t have a Twitter. I don’t even know how that would work. But, yeah, I did scroll through some of the comments. … Joe likes to embarrass people.”